May 2026

By Bob Murphy

That’s the question heard on May Day and on other occasions.

Wealth is extracted from the land and from working people to benefit predatory landlords and corporations. Workers in urban and suburban areas search for affordable,  accessible, and safe housing. Farm workers and small-scale farmers are often exploited by the big boys in the economy.  The equitable production and distribution of healthy food is difficult.

May Day is important for Class Conversations and it’s important for several reasons. There are many stories that can be told.  As imperial Rome developed,  public lands were often exploited by the wealthy. Class conflict developed.  Fines were collected and part of the money was used to pay for the Floralia.  The Floralia celebration took place  in late April and in early May. It was a commoners (plebian) celebration  that  was often resented by the high and the mighty.

The question of land ownership and control has often been at the heart of radical religion and radical politics.  Jesus of Nazareth was a landless peasant in an agrarian society. He was especially concerned about the poor and the dispossessed.  During the 1500s and into the 1600s, the Radical Reformation appeared in Europe. The modern understanding of Universalism and Unitarianism  evolved from the Radical Reformation. In England, Gerrard Winstanley  may have been the first person to identify himself as being a Universalist.

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Mutual Aid Pilot Project

When the UUCC began its work seeding conversations around issues of class over a decade ago, we were aiming to fill a need of that moment: building an awareness, a working vocabulary and a set of tools to address classism.

In the current political and economic climate–made all the more precarious by rising costs, shrinking safety nets and increasing harm to working-class communities–it is mutual aid networks we believe will help us meet the challenge of the moment, providing an essential if nascent infrastructure for survival, dignity and collective resilience. We’re therefore seeking congregations interested in piloting such a project.

This mutual aid pilot phase is an opportunity for participants to learn how to hold money as a shared commons: how decisions are made, how funds move quickly and with care, and how we remain accountable to one another without surveillance or conditionality. After this initial period, we hope to move toward a centralized mutual aid fund that is accessible across the UUCC network.

Please be in touch with info@uuclassconversations.org if this sounds like a timely and potentially transformative project for your congregation

Eli Poore and Peter Bermudes

Going to GA this Year?

If you plan to participate in the UUA General Assembly, be sure to join UU Class Conversations on Saturday, June 20 at 1:30 pm ET for our workshop Social Class in the Age of Billionaires. The Zoominar will be highly interactive, as is true of all UUCC  workshops. We want your input!

Workshop Description:

As U.S. billionaires call the shots on economic and social policy, UUs must push back and lead the way towards a more class-inclusive society. Come explore ways to confront classism, build class alliances, and organize our congregations to create class-inclusive, sacred spaces within and outside of our denomination.

Speakers:

Diane Pansire

Dr. Kimberly Arias

Denise Moorehead

Check the UU Class Conversations website for more over the next few weeks.

Be Part of Something Big This Summer

Embracing Social Class Sunday

Striving for class inclusion in your congregation is sacred work. That is why UU Class Conversation has created – and recently updated – the Embracing Social Class Sunday Worship program resource packet for your use during Summer 2026. The service is a valuable congregational tool any time of the church year for:

• raising awareness of the ways class inclusion supports your work to create Beloved community

• making space for new members of all social classes and

• building authentic ties within your larger community

The Embracing Social Class Sunday Worship program is especially beneficial for lay-led services in the summer, providing class-themed readings, prayers, hymns and even sermons.

Download the resource packet on our worship resources page. We hope to support your continued work to examine class and address classism in your own and in the wider UU faith community.

Embracing Social Class Sunday lets us appreciate and recognize the talents and treasures of people from all class backgrounds.

You can augment your summer service on class with readings, prayers, etc. from UUCC’s booklet  Meditations on Class.

This anthology offers chalice lightings, rituals, sermons and readings about social class and classism by UU ministers, denomination leaders, religious educators, thought leaders and congregants from across our Beloved Community. These spiritual expressions will support the sacred work of social class inclusion in congregations and communities. Grounded in our UU theologies, the writings can be used by individuals, small groups, families and congregations as a resource of spiritual nourishment to help Unitarian Universalists make justice real.